Brett Favre: Is He Really Retired?

Brett Favre is one heck of a quarterback. He plays the game hard and with great passion, and he has amassed more single season records than any quarterback in the history of the league (Peyton Manning may soon give him a run for his money). The problem is he did this in a very selfish manner.

When Brett Favre is told to hand off the ball, he would often audible the play away and go deep. He would always try to throw the ball deep as it pads to his statistics really well. In fact, this may be part of the reason he owns the record for most yards passed as well as most interception.

His refusal to listen to the coach did not make his teams good enough to win the Super Bowl more than once. Considering the talent that surrounded him, he should have won more.

If he truly is a great quarterback surrounded by so many weapons and solid teammates, why did he only win one? Dan Marino did not have that much of a supporting cast, same with Steve Young. The problem with Peyton Manning is that he does not have much of a defence to support him. So what is Favre's excuse?

The only brilliant thing he did is keep this out of the media, and never say things like 'we win when I throw the ball more.' However, he caused these exact problems behind closed doors. As recently as this year, Brad Childress told him to stop audibling away the running plays.

So what is the point of just calling passing plays? To me, it is a sign of wanting statistics more than wins. He just wants to be known as an all time great, and by passing more, he continues to make his records harder to bring down. He is looking for the Hall of Fame nod more than the Lombardi Trophy.

So what does this have to do with his retirement? By pretending to retire, this allows him to skip the Vikings' training camp. He is just a little kid in an old grandpa's body. He refuses to work for his starting position and thinks he has the right to play.

I expect him to come out of retirement as soon as training camp ends so that he can continue adding to his statistics. If I am the Vikings, I would say to Favre what the Packers said to him: 'go away, we don't need you.' This may not be as true for Minnesota as it was for Green Bay, but getting rid of Favre is important as he continues to disrupt his teams.

The flip side is that he is incredibly talented. There is no question about his talent level, but this diva personality has clearly stopped him from winning. The Vikings and all NFL teams should just say no when he tries to come out of retirement. I blame this on Michael Jordan, retiring used to actually mean retiring!